


A Requiem For All The Lives We Never Lived

by advisortotheadvisor



Category: Switched at Birth (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Prom, The prom episode but gay, bit are you seriously telling me there are NO fics featuring Wilke?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22180468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/advisortotheadvisor/pseuds/advisortotheadvisor
Summary: Wilke just wanted to give his boyfriend one stupid, cheesy high school relationship cliche before it all came tumbling down. Unfortunately, life had other plans.(Or, a gay twist on "Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time")
Relationships: Toby Kennish/James "Wilke" Wilkerson, background Bay Kennish/Emmet Bledsoe, background Daphne Vasquez/Simone Sinclair
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	A Requiem For All The Lives We Never Lived

**Author's Note:**

> *makes debut in fandom with a fic for the season 1 au that appeals to me and me alone*
> 
> anyway, the basis for the au is that everything is the same as canon, but the couples are switched. Toby is with Wilke and Daphne is with Simone. Everything else stays the same: the cheating, how Emmett tells Bay, etc.

Wilke was content with a lazy afternoon consisting of watching a dumb horror movie with his boyfriend (and maybe a little post-movie action, if the way Toby's hand was steadily creeping up his thigh was any indication). But, apparently he wasn't allowed to just have nice things because Toby's phone went off just as the first side character got killed.

Toby fumbled for the device, his hands leaving Wilke and taking his warmth with him. Wilke hummed, maybe in disappointment, maybe in curiosity about whose interrupting them. Maybe a little of both.

“It's my mom,” Toby said after a moment of staring at the caller ID, the weak blue glow lighting up his features. He pressed a quick kiss to Wilke's lips before disappearing into the next room like the extra eight feet would prevent Wilke from hearing every word.

After a conversation mostly of “Mmm hmm"s and “What"s, and ending with an “I’ll be right there", Toby came back.

“My mom's stranded with our lawyer guy, I’ve gotta go pick her up.” He slid his phone in his pocket while simultaneously pulling out his keys. “Can we finish this tomorrow?”

Wilke thought about the unwritten essay burning a hole in his desk and the unpacked suitcase lying on his floor and the secrets hiding behind his teeth and under his tongue and he made a split-second decision.

“Why don't I come with you?” he offered.

Toby raised an incredulous, adorable eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“C'mon, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't help you rescue your mom?” 

Toby laughed that “you're so ridiculous” laugh that did unfair things to Wilke's stomach, but he didn't say anything and just looped his fingers through Wilke's and Wilke wondered if it was possible to get addicted to a person, to the feeling of their skin on yours because when Toby took Wilke's hand in his like it was second nature, like it was easy as breathing, Wilke thought that he could hold on forever.

* * *

After the most awkward car trip in his life (You think having dinner with your boyfriend's parents is awkward? Try being trapped in a car with your boyfriend's mom while she alternated between asking you probing questions and hiding a guilty look on her face by staring out the window and your boyfriend ignored the awkwardness by singing along to every song that came on the radio), they finally arrived at the Carlton Prom. Kathryn immediately set off to find her daughters and Toby shadowed her, trying to convince her to do anything else.

After managing to redirect Kathryn to a slow dance with John, Toby turned to Wilke and his lips twitched into a smile that was partially sheepish and partially something Wilke couldn't name. “Sorry our date got ruined by family stuff. Want me to drive you home?”

Wilke looked from his boyfriend's face to the cheesy prom decorations and thought, once again, of his future at a boarding school forty miles away. “Why don't we stay here for a while?”

“Stay? Why? This is isn't even our prom?”

He didn't say _because our relationship has an expiration date and it isn't fair because we spent too long dancing around ‘almosts' and what-ifs and it isn't fair because I never thought we'd be saying goodbye so soon._

He didn't say _because we skipped our prom because we were stupid and didn't know the future and didn't know it was the only one we were going to get and I just want to give you one cheesy high school relationship experience before breaking your heart._

Instead, he smiled his best nothing-is-wrong smile and said, “Because, the opportunity to crash a prom doesn't come often and you have to take it when it comes.”

Toby laughed under his breath, but didn't try to leave again. “C'mon, let’s go see if anyone's spiked the punch yet."

* * *

One thing Wilke learned about deaf proms: They were fucking _loud_.

He'd thought his tolerance for loud music was pretty high, with the whole being-in-a-rock-band thing, but his supposed tolerance crumbled to nothing when faced with the ear drum-shattering volume of the speakers at this prom.

Another problem: Emmett and Simone. He'd known, in the back of his mind, that they would be there since it was Emmett school and obviously Daphne would invite her girlfriend to prom. But, those facts hadn't exactly factored in to Wilke's decision to stay. So, Simone kept shooting him dirty ‘What the hell are you doing here' looks every five minutes and Wilke spent every second trying to make sure he was as far away from both her and Emmett as physically possible so that none of their secrets accidentally fell from his lips. Toby shot him suspicious glances every time Wilke abruptly steered them away to avoid Emmett and/or Simone, but didn't say anything.

Eventually, Wilke left Toby at the punch bowl and went outside to bask in the warm April air. He leaned against the side of the building and breathed in, slowly, glad to be free from the pounding music and avoiding the two people whose secrets he held.

“Hey,” A voice greeted. Wilke cracked an eye open, unsurprised that Toby had come to check on him. His boyfriend had never been good at _not_ helping people.

“Hey,” Wilke returned. Toby leaned against the wall too and craned his head back to stargaze. 

The silence between them grew and grew, tension and Wilke's secrets bubbling up between them. He waited for one of them to speak, to break the silence penetrating every inch of the night air.

After an eternity of milliseconds, Toby pushed off from the wall and Wilke followed suit as he met his boyfriend's eyes across the two feet of dying grass between them.

“What's up with you tonight?” Toby said, the concern in his voice puncturing the silence at last. “You've been acting weird. Is something wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” Wilke said, hoping his tone sounded convincing. Judging by the unimpressed look on Toby's face, he wasn't very successful. “Why don't we just go back inside?”

“Wilke.” Toby said, the hardness in his voice making the name a command all on its own. “What is it? Do you have some problem with deaf people or-"

“Its not that,” he interrupted. “I’m just…not as into this as I thought I'd be.”

“We can leave if you want,” Toby offered. Wilke tasted something sour in the back of his throat; his lies didn't deserve to be met with Toby's compassion and understanding. “I think Emmett, Bay, Daphne, and Simone were planning on going somewhere to eat after anyway-"

“I, uh, don't know about those guys,” Wilke said, unable to imagine going out with Simone and Emmett (or Bay and Daphne) without the secret of their cheating coming out. “Why don’t the two of us do something together?”

“Why not them?” Toby's voice was suspicious as it zeroed in on the one thing Wilke didn’t want to talk about.

“It's just- I don't know.” His excuses died on his tongue.

“If it involves my sisters you have to tell me,” Toby said and Wilke knew, without a doubt, that there was no other way out of this.

“Emmett and Simone…slept together.” The truth tasted bitter in Wilke's mouth, but it wasn't as bad as the look Toby was giving him.

“What?” Toby demanded. “How would- they don't even- how do you even know that?”

“I accidentally saw the texts on Simone's phone. They hooked up at the Springfield game.”

Toby's face had always had a kind of rounded quality to it that made it look younger than he was, something that Wilke teased him about endlessly. Now, however, all of that roundness turned into sharp angles as his face swiftly twisted into harsh anger.

“And you didn't think to tell me this? I’m your boyfriend! Bay and Daphne are my sisters! You should have told me.” Toby said, voice heated, just on the verge of shouting.

“Simone told me it was a one-time thing and I thought since I was leaving anyway-" Wilke argued back.

“Leaving?” All the fire in Toby's voice turns to confusion, but the undercurrent of anger is still there and Wilke wanted more than anything to stick his words back into his mouth.

“My dad's shipping me off to boarding school,” The words tasted like sand in his mouth. He carefully made eye contact with his shoelaces so he could ignore looking at Toby.

“You're leaving.” Toby's voice was deceptively calm, a steely anger lacing it now. “When?”

“Next week.”

“And you weren't going to tell me?” The steel in Toby's tone turned into a razor sharp knifepoint.

“I was going to, I was just waiting for the right-"

Toby didn't bother waiting for the rest of Wilke's explanation, pushing past him and walking back into the school and Wilke found himself rooted to the spot as the door slammed shut, leaving him alone with the stars.

* * *

Wilke found him in an empty English classroom, sitting on a desk and absentmindedly swinging his legs. Toby glanced up and immediately schooled his features into an irritated expression the second they made eye contact.

“What? You have more insanely important secrets you forgot to tell me?” Toby said, venom dripping off every syllable. “Is my Mom having an affair? Are you dying of cancer?”

Wilke winced at Toby's hurled accusations. As nonconfrontational as his boyfriend was, he definitely had a talent of picking at your weak spots and knowing which words to use to tear them apart.

Wilke's hand found its way to Toby's wrist, like he was trying to hold Toby back, despite the shorter boy not moving at all. “Babe, c'mon-"

At that Toby _did_ move; sliding off the desk and jerking his hand away from Wilke's so he could look his boyfriend in the eye. “No. Don't do that shit, Wilke. You _lied_ to me. And about things that involved my sister! Both my sisters! You don't get to make that go away with a dumb joke or a half-assed apology!”

Despite the three inches that Wilke had over Toby, he couldn't have felt any smaller.

“Look,” Wilke pleaded. “I didn't tell you because…it wasn't any of my business okay? I didn't want to get in the middle of all that.”

Toby chewed the inside of his cheek, contemplating. Calculating. It reminded of Wilke of how his boyfriend looked at the poker table; like he was deciding if Wilke’s words were something he was willing to bet on. And then all the anger drained out of Toby like the air from a deflating balloon.

Toby turned away and opened the classroom door, an echo of their earlier fight. This time, however, Toby looked back and raised an eyebrow at Wilke. “Well? Are you coming?”

Wilke followed and there were no “I'm sorry"s passed between them, but the way Toby took his hand again felt enough like forgiveness.

* * *

“Listen, if you want to tell Bay and Daphne, we’ll tell them. Or we can not tell them. It's up to you,” Wilke said as they meandered their way back to the gym.

“I mean, we have to tell them, right? They’re my sisters,” Toby said. A protective note entered his tone, the kind that always appeared when he talked about his family, the kind that made Wilke think, _I love you_.

He almost said it. Right there, on the outskirts of a prom that wasn't theirs, the words rose in his throat. And he meant it. He loved the way Toby loved his family so unconditionally, he loved the way Toby quietly put everyone's needs before his own, he loved how Toby could out-stubborn almost anyone on earth once he put his mind to something.

He loved the mundane things too; he loved how Toby sung under his breath when he was nervous; he loved Toby's laugh, the way it bubbled up and then came out in a rush; he loved Toby's slightest hint of an overbite, not bad enough to warrant braces, but it still poked out when he spoke; he loved the way Toby seemed to come alive when he was performing, the spark that entered his eyes when he sang.

He was irrevocably, unconditionally, in love with Toby Kennish.

But as Toby looked at him, haloed in the fluorescent lights of the hallway like Wilke's own personal angel, he couldn't bring himself to say it. Toby looked at him like he knew all the things that Wilke wanted to say, but didn't do anything either and just led Wilke further into the fray of dancing teenagers.

“Help me look for Bay. Or Daphne,” Toby shouted over the eardrum-bursting music. Their hands drifted apart as Toby used his to sign his questions of his sisters' whereabouts to various passing students.

“I think Emmett beat us to it,” Wilke shouted back as Bay stormed across the dance floor and out of the gym, furious, heartbroken tears glittering in her eyes. Emmett watched from across the gym, but didn't follow her. It looked like Daphne was getting caught up as well, if the betrayed look on her face and Simone's despondent posture were anything to go by. 

Toby ran a hand through his hair, fingers snagging slightly before dropping back to his side. “I…I really don't know what to do now.” He laughed a little hopelessly.

“Here's what we're gonna do,” Wilke said, catching Toby's hands with his own. “You're gonna dance to this shitty pop song with me and we're going to pretend everything is fine until tomorrow.”

Toby looked at their intertwined hands for a second before meeting Wilke's eyes. “Well, you know how much I love shitty pop songs.”

He placed his hands on Toby's lower back, and in return Toby looped his hands around Wilke's neck. It was more like gentle swaying than dancing, but he let himself get lost in it anyway because in this moment, there were no boarding schools or cheating drama or unspoken words between them. He made himself forget everything other than the warmth of Toby's hands on his neck and the way the lights made his boyfriend's blue eyes look brighter, glowing almost.

In that moment, they were the only two people in the world.


End file.
